Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to biopsy sampling and, more particularly, to devices, systems, and methods for navigating a biopsy tool to a target location and obtaining a tissue sample using the biopsy tool.
Description of Related Art
A bronchoscope is inserted into a patient's airways through the patient's nose or mouth. A typical bronchoscope includes an elongated flexible tube having an illumination assembly for illuminating the region distal to the bronchoscope's tip, an imaging assembly for providing a video image from the bronchoscope's tip, and a working channel through which instruments, e.g., diagnostic instruments such as biopsy tools and/or therapeutic instruments such as ablation probes, can be inserted.
Bronchoscopes are limited in how far they may be advanced through the airways due to their size. Where the bronchoscope is too large to reach a target location deep in the lungs, a locatable guide (“LG”) enveloped by a sheath is often utilized to navigate from the end of the bronchoscope to the target location. That is, the LG, together with a navigation system, enables the position and orientation of the LG to be tracked as the LG is advanced through the airways.
In use, the LG/sheath combination is inserted through the working channel of the bronchoscope and into the patient's airways. Once the LG has been navigated to the target location, aided by the position and orientation tracking provided by the navigation system, the LG is retracted through the sheath, leaving the sheath in position. With the LG retracted, the sheath is often referred to as an extended working channel (“EWC”) because it effectively functions as an extension of the working channel of the bronchoscope.
Once the LG has been retracted from the EWC, the EWC may be used as an avenue for guiding working tools, e.g., biopsy tools, ablation probes, etc., to the target location. However, once the LG is removed from the EWC, tracking is no longer provided and, thus, the operator is operating blind, relying on the EWC to remain fixed at the target location. Repositioning of the working tool at the target location is likewise required to be performed without guidance.